Microsoft Stock Price - more of the same

I’ve been holding a few April call contracts in Microsoft (symbol: MSFT)since late 2006 and was happy to have ridden a portion of the wave up from the high twenties to nearly $31/share leading up to the consumer launch of Vista.

Unfortunately, my profits have all but evaporated over the last couple weeks after a less than exciting product launch and many less than warm reviews of the product in general.  The buzz just isn’t out there for Vista. Those that have tried it say it has a few nice whiz-bang features, but really nothing to write home about.

Is it too much to ask that after 5 plus years in development, Microsoft add a little flash to their product to really build up some excitement?  Whether the changes are earth shattering or not, consumers just want flash.  They are used to the upgrade process by now, they are used the hardware driver issues by now, they are used to having to install third-party virus scanners and spyware detection software now, give them something new. Give them something that will make all the PC magazines gush over for at least a few months.

The most recent announcement by Ballmer noted that revenue projections for Vista were overly optimistic which, as of this writing, has caused the stock to decline close to 3% today.  Microsoft is still making boatloads of money, but until they do something to cause some excitement and buzz in the industry, I’m afraid their product sales and stock price will languish.